Parkside men's basketball suffered a tough road loss Saturday night at Illinois-Springfield to wrap up the Prairie Stars Tipoff Classic. UIS got a huge lift in 3-point shooting and rebounding, as the team finished 15-for-35 from beyond the arc and outrebounded Parkside 40-28 with 20 offensive rebounds.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half was back-and-forth, with Parkside holding on to the lead for the first 10:00 minutes followed by UIS holding the lead for the rest of the way. Redshirt-sophomore Cameron Myre hit a 3-pointer with 1:00 to play in the first half that gave the Rangers the 30-29 lead. A Tray Croft layup in the final seconds tied it up at 32-32 at halftime.
 
UIS scored first in the second half and never gave up the lead to the Rangers the rest of the way. After a Ramar Evans layup with 2:24 to play, the Rangers trailed 74-70 but couldn't get the stop and a make they needed.
 
STATWORTHY
Croft finished with a team-high 18 points while redshirt-sophomore Brandon Hau had 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Myre finished with 10 points off the bench while the trio of Brandon Trimble/Joey St. Pierre/Solomon Oraegbu all had seven points.
 
Jesus Castillo of UIS finished with 24 points after going 8-for-12 from beyond the arc. Parkside finished shooting 47.1-percent and UIS 45.5-percent. The Rangers went 16-for-22 from the free-throw line while UIS went 3-for-8.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Parkside will host the first-ever Parkside Invitational presented by HARIBO next weekend on Friday and Saturday. The Rangers will battle Hillsdale on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. The consolation/championship will take place on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 1 & 3 p.m.